An energy-based seismic response evaluation of simple structural systems with simulated ground motions

In recent years, there has been a strong interest on energy-based design and assessment methods for structural systems. The underlying research has been mostly performed using real ground motion records taken from existing earthquakes worldwide. Results may involve bias due to lack of homogeneity of the available ground motion dataset in terms of magnitudes, source to site distances or soil conditions. In this study a large set of ground motion records is simulated within a parametric exercise to investigate the effect of different intensity measures on the energy-based response of simple SDOF structures. To generate simulated records, the stochastic finite-fault methodology which is effective in simulating a wide range of frequencies including those that influence the built environment is used. The simulations are performed on active faults around Duzce city center located on the western segments of North Anatolian Fault zone in Turkey. The simulated records cover a wide range of moment magnitude, source-to-site distances and soil conditions. To assess the response statistics on SDOF models, time history analyses with simulated records are performed. Input energy, damping energy and hysteretic energy are considered as the main output parameters. The results of this study reveal that energy is a more stable parameter than the other response parameters such as displacement and force. However, it is important to dissipate the estimated input energy through damping and inelastic action. Finally, it is believed that conducting parametric seismic analysis based on simulated records yield realistic results since these records provide variability in seismic demand